Don't Want to Deny My Heart
by Amber Lehcar
Summary: In a world where those born with the same mark are bound by fate, young Maka Albarn must fulfill a promise to her mother and search for her Gemina, the one destiny chose for her.


"You did pretty well in practice today. You know, for a girl," he grunted as he pushed himself off the dusty floor. He brought himself down for another push-up, not quite finished with his training routine.

She slumped into a chair in the small dining room and replied, "A girl who kicked your butt, remember?" Sure she had been able to keep up with him, but Maka Albarn was not quite made of the same stuff as her friend and needed to take a breather. She rested a hand on the cool earthen brick behind her.

"Hey, I went easy on you! No one can take on me, the Mighty Blake!"

"Sure, whatever you say…" Maka unwrapped the cloth around her hands, revealing a mark on her right palm. It had been with her since the day she was born, the shape of a crescent moon. Absentmindedly, she stroked the mark with the fingers on her left hand. "Why do you always show off your mark?" she asked her friend. He had never hidden the star on his shoulder in all the years they had known each other.

"I wanna find my Gemina!" he grunted, once again holding his body up. "Doesn't everyone?"

"Maybe…" She stared uneasily at her hand.

Blake leapt from the ground, crossed the room, and placed a comforting hand on each of her shoulders. "Hey, don't worry. When you find your Gemina, you'll be ready. It won't end up like your mother."

"You're really sure someone out there has a mark like mine?"

"So says the Shinigami! Has he lied yet?" The young man left her side and dropped to the earth floor to continue his set of push-ups. It wasn't long before her father entered their small home, dropping supplies from his trip to the market on the table..

"Word is there's a beautiful woman wandering the streets," Spirit announced with a dreamy sigh. "No one has seen her in the village before, but they say she's probably too young for me. Shame… Sounds like she has big tracks of land…" He slumped into a chair, clearly imagining what the young lady must have looked like as he set his muddy heels on the table. His daughter rolled her eyes at him and pushed them back down to the floor.

With this new information, Blake jumped up from the floor. "I'll go check her out, I mean, it out! C'mon, Maka!" Against the girl's will, he grabbed her arm and dragged her out the door. She managed to grab a pair of leather gloves from the table on their way out.

Shoving the gloves on her hands, Maka glared at her friend. "You're only interested in seeing this girl because of her breasts, just like Papa. Typical boy…"

"That and she could be my Gemina, remember?" The smell of a roast from one of the neighbors' sod houses must have caught his attention because be began to murmur about being hungry.

She paid him no mind and kicked at a few rocks on the dirt road, deep in thought. "What would you wish for?"

"Wha?"

"If you would have a wish granted, what would it be?"

"To be the strongest, of course!" he said, throwing a smile back at her. They did not make it far down the road before the young man stopped in his tracks, gaze fixated on a figure ahead.

Before them stood a beautiful young woman with long black hair. She smiled warmly at the villagers, even though many drew away from her. Most outsiders came to the village for malicious reasons, and the villagers had grown accustomed to that fact. It did not seem to bother her much, though. Blake's gaze caught her attention, and she waved at him, coming closer.

"Hello there! I was just passing through. My name is Tsubaki."

Maka stepped in front of Blake and introduced herself and the now mute boy. "I'm Maka, and this is Blake." She noted that the taller girl did not have a star on her shoulder. Blake must have noticed, too, as his eyes lingered on skin exposed below her capped sleeve. "Are you… here looking for your Gemina?"

"Oh, no, I've already found him actually. I'm really just traveling. You wouldn't know of a place I could stay the night, would you?"

Maka pointed her in the direction of the inn and begged her leave, dragging Blake along with her. "What is the matter with you?" she hissed. "She isn't your Gemina, you shouldn't concern yourself with her." She threw a cautious glance over her shoulder to watch Tsubaki make her way in the direction she had pointed in.

Finally coming to his senses, he replied, "But she's so beautiful! I want to be concerned with her!"

"Leave her be! She probably wants to travel without being bothered."

"I'm gonna go talk to her!"

"You better not! Come back here!" Her hold on his arm was not strong enough to hold him back, and the boy made his way towards the inn. With a sigh, she followed. Someone had to make sure he stayed in line.

…

"I'm pretty?" Tsubaki asked over the dull roar of the tavern guests. She dropped some coins in the server's hand after their drinks arrived.

"Informed! Pretty informed if you've been traveling!" Blake added after a swift warning kick from Maka under the table. "Whatcha know?"

"Well… I have heard something interesting, but I don't know if it's true of not." Tsubaki wrung her hands in her lap. "I heard the young prince is missing. He was traveling with his carriage and just… disappeared from it. Prince Wes is worried sick about his brother and supposedly has been traveling the country with a small search party. I wouldn't be surprised if he made his way here as well."

"I don't think the royal family has ever made it out to this village before," Maka said. "If they have, Papa never told me."

"I saw a search party at a larger town a few miles away," Tsubaki continued. "I don't believe the prince was with them…"

"Could be some witch-hunters," Blake offered. "There's been a witch traveling the country-side. Nasty thing. Got our village first."

Maka clenched her hands for a moment, remembering the day the witch Medusa terrorized their village. The witch had been born of a wish… Curiousity set, and she turned to Tsubaki to ask, "Have you had a wish granted?" The traveler nodded slowly. "What was it?"

"My wish? It was… for my brother to find peace…" The traveler's fingers gripped her drink tightly.

"Where is your brother?"

"I cannot say. I haven't been home for some time. I don't believe I am welcome anymore…"

"Why's that?"

Tsubaki's eyes lowered to the floor. "I'd rather not say." She scooted her drink closer to Blake and pushed herself away from the table. "Please excuse me, I've been walking for a while. I think I'll go to bed now. It was really nice meeting you both though!" With her polite smile and wave, the traveler left the tavern.

Blake sighed and rested his chin in his palm. "I think I'm in love, Maka."

"Again, you should leave her alone. She'll probably leave in the morning. Besides, like I said before, she isn't your Gemina, you don't need to concern yourself with her." She sipped on her drink and began pondering her own Gemina. Tsubaki could not have been that much older than her. Was it about time she set out to fulfill her promise…?

Limbs waved in front of her face, pulling her back to the tavern. "Why are you so spacy?" Blake asked before knocking back his own drink.

"I think… I'm ready."

"For what? Sleep?"

"No! To find my Gemina…"

…

She was glad she had decided to leave the village in the daylight rather than under the cover of darkness. Being alone in the forest was terrifying enough in broad daylight. She could only imagine what could be hiding in the shadows once night fell…

Maka shook her head. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things. She had to find her Gemina and come home. Finally come home to who she hoped would be a healthy mother. She had made a promise. And so she continued deeper into the forest, towards the next town over. Luckily for her the next town was not too far. She could make it before the sun set. Not much good had come from the small "goodbye party" her father held before her departure aside from a few supplies and her father's old hunting knife. It was probably the only welcomed gift he had ever given her. It made her feel much more at ease as she patted it in its sheath at her hip.

Suddenly, there was movement in the bushes near her. "Who's there?" Maka shouted, shakily removing her knife from its sheath. She heard more rustling and growling sounds coming from whatever creature was moving in the foliage. "Show yourself, now!"

The rustling stopped, and a shock of white hair emerged. A person stood before her, hands raised above his head in surrender. She noticed burn scars on the palms of his hands. "Not here to hurt you," the young man's voice rumbled.

"I'll ask again, who are you?"

"Name's Soul. Runaway."

Her grip on her knife tightened. "What do you mean, 'run away'? I'm not scared of you…"

"No, I mean I'm a runaway. That's why I'm in the woods. So bygones?" he asked, nodding to the knife in her hands. She watched him like a hawk while reluctantly sheathing the weapon. "What about you? A girl in the woods by herself?"

"I'm perfectly capable of defending myself, thank you."

"Your Gemina, huh?" he guessed, lowering his arms and readjusting his long sleeves.

Maka froze. "Y-Yeah. Figured it was about time I searched for mine."

"Most girls your age don't. Not ready."

"I need to though. I promised. For my mother." She glanced down at her right hand on the hilt of her knife.

"I see." Soul stepped closer to her. "Me, I'm not ready to meet mine. So I guess you could say I admire you for taking fate into your own hands." She blushed at his words. "One's a lonely number in these woods. Mind if I come with you, Lady…?"

"Maka," she answered. "And I'd prefer if you wouldn't call me Lady… I'm nowhere near important enough for that."

"So just Maka then?" She nodded. "Alright, then I'm just Soul, kay?"

"What, no 'Sir Soul' for you?"

"I've had enough of that…" He stared at the ground, hands balled into fists.

Her own gaze dropped to the ground, ashamed for having teased him. "So, Soul… Where are you going?"

Pulled from his thoughts, the young man shrugged. "Anywhere but here. Any idea where your Gemina might be?"

"No… But before I was interrupted," she punctuated the word with a sharp glare to her new companion, "I was on my way to Mors."

"Sounds good to me," he replied, slinging a pack over his shoulder and walking away. Realizing Maka was not following, he stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. "Coming with?"

She rolled her eyes and shot a thumb over her shoulder. "Mors is that way…"

The quick look of embarrassment did not get past her as he started walking in the correct direction.

"You don't travel much, do you?" she asked with a bit of amusement.

"You're one to talk," he replied grumpily. "Saw how much you were shaking."

She pouted, following him close behind. "You startled me! You could have been a bear, a bandit, a witch! I was just staying on guard!"

He smirked and shrugged at her. "Whatever you say."

"I'm not your babysitter, by the way," she said, quickening her pace to get ahead of him. "Once we reach Mors, you are on your own." She threw a glance over her shoulder to see his reaction. The amount of apathy in his shrug bothered her for some reason. "So… those scars. There must be a good story behind those." The road to Mors was going to be even longer if they remained silent the whole way.

Soul shoved his hands into his pants' pockets. "Not really. Accident. The reason you tell your kids not to play with fire."

It was obvious to her she was not about to get anywhere with the young man. His attitude was grating on her nerves, even though he was the one asking to tag along. Just as she was about to decide that a bit of silence was probably for the best, a loud growl came from his stomach.

He blushed furiously when she turned back to him. Turning away from her, he asked, "You… wouldn't happen to have any food on you? I used up all of my provisions a little while ago."

Maka rubbed one of her temples. There was no way they would make it to Mors before sunset with her new companion taking up all their precious daylight. But she couldn't complain too much. Breakfast had been some time ago, and she was beginning to feel hungry herself. With a sigh, she set her pack on the side of the path and starting walking just a bit into the woods. Curious, Soul started to follow her until she shouted at him, "Stay with my pack! Don't let anyone or anything run off with it!"

He did as he was instructed and waited patiently for her to return with kindling. "What's all that for?"

"A fire? For cooking?"

"Ah, right." He watched her, mouth agape, as she started a fire with some flint from her pack. As she began setting up a spit, he asked her, "Where'd you learn to do that?"

Without turning from her work, she answered, "My mother taught me. She used to do all the cooking at home, and then I took over when she got sick. It's not too hard really."

"Never seen anyone actually do it before."

Just as she finished setting up everything for cooking, she looked up at him with a very perplexed expression. "You've never seen anyone cook over a fire before? What kind of cushiony life did you leave?"

"Well isn't it a woman's job to cook?"

He was lucky she had finished setting everything up for him. She threw her pack into his stomach a bit harder than necessary. "Well this woman is not cooking. You're hungry, you feed us." She took a seat on a nearby boulder, arms and legs crossed.

Shooting a glare at her, he rummaged through her pack for some meat and put it on the spit over the fire. "Not a problem. Like you said, s'not too hard, really. It's just dinner." He smirked, mentally patting himself on the back, as he leaned on one of the ends of the spit.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Not too hard, huh?" He nodded at her, puffing with pride. "You realize your sleeve is on fire, right?"

Sure enough, his sleeve had caught fire. His immediate reaction was to try to yank his arm from the sleeve while Maka shrieked at him to drop on the floor and roll. In an attempt to help him pat out the flames, she managed to tackle him to the ground, narrowly missing the spit as her legs flew out from under her.

With the flame now out, she propped herself up on her hands and knees. "Someone made a big deal out of 'just dinner'," she teased before getting back on her feet. "Don't worry, I'll take care of the food. Good thing you didn't ruin it."

He propped himself up on his elbows and stared at the singed remains of his sleeve. "Thanks…" he offered. "Gonna need a new shirt when we get to Mors. Looks like I lost a button, too. Great…"

Maka rolled her eyes and returned her attention to their meal. It was going to be a long journey to Mors.


End file.
